figure out


verb(tr, adverb; may take a clause as object) informal
  1. to calculate or reckon

  2. to understand

Words Nearby figure out

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

How to use figure out in a sentence

  • I couldn't figure out what he was trying to do, at first, or I'd have rushed out and tried to stop him.

    Motor Matt's "Century" Run | Stanley R. Matthews
  • Textures and surface qualities, local or personal colors, lose their significance to the figure out-of-doors.

    The Painter in Oil | Daniel Burleigh Parkhurst
  • But I know that is all wrong, and I have set to work to figure out just how to be thankful like other people.

  • But we could not figure out how to capture them without alarming the city.

    The Fire People | Ray Cummings
  • We hope, someday, to figure out a method of restoring their sanity.

    The Penal Cluster | Ivar Jorgensen (AKA Randall Garrett)

Other Idioms and Phrases with figure out

figure out

Discover or determine, as in Let's figure out a way to help. [Early 1900s]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.